Hong Kong: The Shabbat experience

Although Tracing the Tribe is now in Melbourne, I wanted to report on my Shabbat in Hong Kong.

I attended Friday night services with Garry Stein (an old Jewish genealogy friend from Toronto) at the United Jewish Congregation (liberal). Melodies were a mix of old, new and nostalgic There were Jewish faces and Asian faces, but most of all, there were singers. This is a singing congregation.

UJC’s premises were carved out of space in One Robinson Place (70 Robinson Road), which includes two tall residential towers, the multi-floored JCC and the original Ohel Leah historic synagogue.

Following services, we went up to the Sabra Coffee Shop in the JCC for Shabbat dinner. The large space was transformed into separate dining rooms for two groups. The food was excellent and the company – a real mix of individuals – even better. One Chinese woman who attended is studying ethnomusicology at Hong Kong University and focusing on Jewish music, another young man is Brazilian; there are Americans and other nationalities.

On Shabbat morning, Ohel Leah was my choice. This wonderfully restored synagogue is across the courtyard from the JCC’s Garden Terrace function room. The courtyard also has a playground well-used by the young children.

As OHL is an Orthodox congregation, women sit upstairs; the mechitza is an openwork grill surrounding the three-sided balcony. The acoustics are excellent, and the Torah scrolls in their silver Sephardic cases (tik) are masterpieces. The congregation uses the ArtScroll siddur and Stone chumash.

Everyone who read or participated had beautiful voices – it was a pleasure to be part of this Shabbat service. A sit-down kiddush followed. Among the familiar faces of people I had spoken to all week wasa new one: Howard Elias, who is both the Jewish cemetery warden and Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival organizer. Tracing the Tribe bets you didn’t know there was one!

Kiddush included baked salmon in a delicious sauce, Chinese cold noodles, dressed cucumber salad, tomato salad, even hummus and eggplant salad. The community’s excellent challah is superb; dessert was a strudel-ly pastry. Howard said this was regular kiddush fare, adding that I should see it when there’s a simcha!

Howard grew up in Toronto, was a USYer, and lived very close to my TALALAY cousins.

During the zemirot singing after the meal, visiting Rabbi Jackson – from Ireland – offered a melody for one popular song that sounded very much like the Mighty Mouse cartoon theme. I won’t forget that one very soon.

Over the past week, I’ve received many private comments from readers who have visited Hong Kong but never knew about the Jewish community, the JCC or attended a Shabbat service.

If this destination is on your radar screen, do try to visit, attend a Shabbat service, check events and meet the community – I’m sure you’ll enjoy the experience.

Don’t forget the 11th Hong Kong Jewish Film Festival, set for November 13-21, 2010.

I am looking forward to my return trip March 21-25 to this diverse, welcoming and interesting community.

Tel Aviv: Iranian film forum, Feb. 23-May 25

The Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University will present an Iranian Film Forum on Tuesdays, from February 23-May 25.

Screenings, followed by Q&A, will run from 6-8.30pm (Room 281, Gillman Building).

Attendees will have the opportunity to become acquainted with diverse aspects of the Iranian experience, within the country and abroad

Professor Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, an Iranian filmmaker and creative arts profession at Siena College of New York, will lead the discussions. He is a visiting Fulbright scholar at the Center for Iranian Studies at Tel Aviv University.

— February 23: Introduction to Iranian Cinema
Dream Interrupted (2004); Mahmood Karimi-Hakak
A documentary film based on “Exiled to Freedom: A Memoir of Censorship”

— March 16: Women in Iran
The Day I Became a Woman (2000); Marzieh Meshkini

— April 13: Iranian Youth
The Girl in the Sneakers (1999); Rasul Sadrameli

— May 4: Minorities in Iran
The Blackboard (1999); Samirah Makhmalbaf

— May 25: Iranian Diaspora
To be announced

The program is tentative and subject to change

New York: Jewish Film Festival, Jan. 13-28

The 19th New York Jewish Film Festival will run January 13-28, sponsored by The Jewish Museum and The Film Society of Lincoln Center.

NYBlueprint.com offered details.

The Jewish Museum and The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present the 19th annual New York Jewish Film Festival at The Film Society’s Walter Reade Theater, The Jewish Museum, and The JCC in Manhattan, January 13-28, 2010.

The festival’s 32 features and shorts from 13 countries—28 screening in their U.S. or New York premieres—present a diverse global perspective on the Jewish experience. Several filmmakers and special guests will join in onstage discussions following the screenings.

Films include the New York premiere of Lukás Pribyl’s “Forgotten Transports: To Poland,“ which looks into the lives of Czech Jews deported by the Nazis to camps and ghettos in Eastern Poland’s Lublin region during the Holocaust. I’ve known Lukás since he came to Israel to interview and film survivors.

There will also be two restored archival films: (1947) “The Axe Of Wandsbek,” (1935) Yiddish classic “Bar Mitzvah,” with Boris Thomashefsky in his only film performance. The other films and documentaries:

“Saviors in the Night”
“Within the Whirlwind”
“Einsatzgruppen: The Death Brigades”
“The Jazz Baroness”
“Mary and Max,”
“Ajami”
“Eyes Wide Open”
“Ultimatum”
“Valentina’s Mother”
“Protector”
“Berlin ’36”
“Gruber’s Journey”
“Happy End.”
“Gevald!”
“Chronicle of a Kidnap”
“Ahead of Time”
“Making the Crooked Straight”
“Human Failure”
“Leap Of Faith”
“Leon Blum: For All Mankind”
“A History of Israeli Cinema”
“Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness”
“The Peretzniks”

For details on each film or documentary, tickets and all festival information, click here.

Most screenings will be at the Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, with other screenings at The Jewish Museum (5th and 92nd St.) and the JCC in Manhattan (Amsterdam at W. 76th St.). Single tickets are $11; seniors, $8; Film Society and Museum members and students, $7.

Los Angeles: JGSLA celebrates 30th, Dec. 6

It’s a party!

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a Chanukah party and film festival, on Sunday, December 6.

The event runs from 1.30-4pm at the University Synagogue.

Join the group at a pre-holiday celebration to schmooze with friends and browse the library while enjoying latkes and applesauce, jelly donuts and other holiday treats.

Learn about exciting JGSLA 2010 conference plans and watch some of the great films shown at the Philly 2009 conference, followed by discussions.

Make sure to reserve, so they’ll have enough yummy munchies.

Screenings include:

ALIEN VI (OBCY VI)

When a young Jewish man appears in a tranquil Polish village years after shameful local memories of WWII have long since faded, the villagers react with a surprisingly disparate variety of ways, reflecting their own ambivalent attitudes toward their collective past.

Unwittingly, the visitor reminds the local inhabitants of a world that has been out of existence for so long that many had thought it right to believe it never existed. People begin to confide with him, as if they sought to clear their minds of their memories or second-hand stories. When he leaves, the town will never be the same again. 30 minutes.

Who Do You Think You Are? – The Zoë Wanamaker Story

Zoë Wanamaker was born in New York, but when she was three her father, American actor Sam Wanamaker, fled to the UK to escape the anti-communist McCarthy witch-hunts. Hoping to better understand her father’s decision, Zoë heads to Washington DC where she visits the FBI headquarters and under the Freedom of Information Act, Zoë gains access to her father’s FBI file.

Wanting to explore the roots of her father’s left-wing politics, Zoë next looks into the life of her grandfather Maurice Wanamaker, an émigré Russian Jew. Zoë is moved to discover that, soon after his arrival in Chicago, Maurice suffered a series of personal tragedies and hardships that almost destroyed his American dream. Finally, Zoë travels to Nikolaev in Ukraine where she discovers the original form of her unusual surname and the reason why her family left for America. 60 minutes.

Toyland (Spielzeugland)

2009 Oscar for best live-action short film. Set in the early 1940s in Germany, Toyland explores the guilt, the responsibility, and the small and big and lies during one of the most heinous periods in European history. In order to protect her son, Marianne Meisner tries to make him believe that the Jewish neighbors are going on a journey to “Toyland.” One morning her son disappears, along with the Jewish neighbors. 15 minutes.

Suggested donation towards the incredible edibles is $10/member, $18/guest, payable at the door.

The JGSLA traveling library will be open from 1pm.

Reservations are essential so there’ll be enough for everyone at this festive occasion. Make your reservation (name and number of people) with an email to Pamela Weisberger.

New York: Jews of Spain conference, Dec. 5-7

The historic link between Spain and the Jewish people will be explored at an international conference – “The Jews of Spain: Past and Present” – set for December 5-7, organized by the American Sephardi Federation/Sephardic House.

The event, at New York City’s Center for Jewish History, will bring together experts and scholars from the US, Canada and Israel, with the participation of senior Spanish government officials.

Renowned as both the historic birthplace of Sephardic culture, Spain was also the site of dark moments in Jewish history.addressing both the triumphs and travails of the Sephardic Jewish legacy in Spain.

The event is being organized by ASF with the assistance of the Consulate General of Spain in New York.

Saturday night’s opening will feature a gala concert and dessert reception with Spain’s Paco Díez, showcasing his voice, guitar, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, percussion and folk traditions from diverse regions in Spain.

The program covers contributions of Jews to Spain through scholarship, culture, the tragic medieval period, and contemporary issues.

Speakers include:

— From Insiders to Outcasts: A History of the Jews in Spain – Prof. Jane S. Gerber (CUNY)

— Yehuda Halevi, Poet and Pilgrim – Prof. Raymond P. Scheindlin (JTS)

— The Challenge of Philosopy on Religious Thought: The World of Moses Maimonides – Dr. Albert L. Ivry (NYU)

— Jewish Thought: The Mystical Traditions – Prof. Elliot Wolfson (NYU)

— The Reconquista: Jews and the New Realities of Christian Spain – Prof. Jonathan S. Ray (Georgetown University)

— The Unknown Jewish Artists of Spain – Dr. Vivan Mann (JTS)

— Jews and the City in Medieval Spain – Prof. Eleazar Gutwirth (Tel Aviv University)

— The Inquisition/The Expulsion of 1492 and Don Isaac Abravanel – Prof. Eric Lawee (York University)

— Spain and the Jews Today – Enrique Mugica Herzog (ombudsman, Spain)

— The Jewish Communities in Contemporary Spain – Jacobo Israel (president, Federation of Jewish Communities in Spain)

— The Sephardic Heritage as a Living Part of Spanish Culture – Diego de Ojeda (director general, Casa Sefarad/Israel, Madir) and Assumpcio Hosta Rebes (secretary general, Red de Juderias, Girona)

A book will be published on the conference topics, documenting Sephardic heritage’s deep roots in Spain. Translated into Spanish, it will be distributed throughout Spain to universities, libraries and other centers.

Tickets are daily attendance or a Sunday-Monday package ($95, with a discount for ASF members/NextGen members for $75). Fee includes a kosher buffet lunch each day. The Saturday night program is $35/$25, for concert and dessert reception. Reservation deadline is November 30.

The program is funded by the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation. Other participating organizations are Casa Sefarad/Israel (Madrid); Red de Juderias (Girona), the Instituto Cervantes (New York) and The Catalan Center (NYU).

ASF/SH is committed to promoting this program to a wider Jewish and non-Jewish audience to enrich public knowledge about the Sephardic Jewish experience.

ASF has a library and archives exclusively devoted to Sephardic/Mizrahi topics and authors – the only one in the western hemisphere open to the public. Its mission is to collect, preserve and provide access to resources for the study of Jews tracing their ancestry to the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, the Middle East, the Balkans and the Orient. Click for the Online Catalog.

“The Jews of Spain: Past and Present” is a year-long ASF initiative. Other components include:

Exhibition: “Jerusalem and the Jews of Spain: Longing and Reality.” Free and open to the public through May 2010.

Film Festival: The Sephardic Jewish Film Festival (February 4-11, 2010, New York) will feature selected films on Spain.

Lecture Series: Such topics as “Maimonides, Spinoza and Us;” “Daughters of Sara, Mothers of Israel;” and “The Jewish Presence in Contemporary Catalan Literature.”

See the ASF site link above for much more information.